Collected Stories 1 - The Short Happy Life of the Brown Oxford and Other Classic Stories Read online

  "They are coming," the globe said. It was resting on the couch beside him, and its faint whisper curled to his brain like a wisp of smoke. It had not actually spoken, of course, for its language was mental. But Benton heard.

  "What shall I do?" he asked.

  "Do nothing," the globe said. "They will go away." The buzzer sounded and Benton remained where he was. The buzzer sounded again, and Benton stirred restlessly. After a while the men went down the walk again and appeared to have departed.

  "Now what?" Benton asked. The globe did not answer for a moment.

  "I feel that the time is almost here," it said at last. "I have made no mistakes so far, and the difficult part is past. The hardest was having you come through time. It took me years--the Watcher was clever. You almost didn't answer, and it was not until I thought of the method of putting the machine in your hands that success was certain. Soon you shall release us from this globe. After such an eternity--"

  There was a scraping and a murmur from the rear of the house, and Benton started up.

  "They are coming in the back door!" he said. The globe rustled angrily. The Controller and the Council Members came slowly and warily into the room. They spotted Benton and stopped.

  "We didn't think that you were at home," the First Member said. Benton turned to him.

  "Hello," he said. "I'm sorry that I didn't answer the bell; I had fallen asleep. What can I do for you?"

  Carefully, his hand reached out toward the globe, and it seemed almost as if the globe rolled under the protection of his palm.

  "What have you there?" the Controller demanded suddenly. Benton stared at him, and the globe whispered in his mind.

  "Nothing but a paperweight," he smiled. "Won't you sit down?" The men took their seats, and the First Member began to speak. "You came to see us twice, the first time to register an invention, the second time because we had summoned you to appear, as we could not allow the invention to be issued."

  "Well?" Benton demanded. "Is there something the matter with that?"

  "Oh, no," the Member said, "but what was for us your first visit was for you your second. Several things prove this, but I will not go into them just now. The thing that is important is that you still have the machine. This is a difficult problem. Where is the machine? It should be in your possession. Although we cannot force you to give it to us, we will obtain it eventually in one way or another."

  "That is true," Benton said. But where was the machine? He had just left it at the Controller's Office. Yet he had already picked it up and taken it into time, whereupon he had returned to the present and had returned it to the Controller's Office!

  "It has ceased to exist, a non-entity in a time-spiral," the globe whispered to him, catching his thoughts. "The time-spiral reached its conclusion when you deposited the machine at the Office of Control. Now these men must leave so that we can do what must be done."

  Benton rose to his feet, placing the globe behind him. "I'm afraid that I don't have the time machine," he said. "I don't even know where it is, but you may search for it if you like."

  "By breaking the laws, you have made yourself eligible for the Cart," the Controller observed. "But we feel that you have done what you did without meaning to. We do not want to punish anyone without reason, we only desire to maintain Stability. Once that is upset, nothing matters."

  "You may search, but you won't find it," Benton said. The Members and the Controller began to look. They overturned chairs, searched under the carpets, behind pictures, in the walls, and they found nothing.

  "You see, I was telling the truth," Benton smiled, as they returned to the living room.

  "You could have hidden it outside someplace," the Member shrugged. "It doesn't matter, however."

  The Controller stepped forward.

  "Stability is like a gyroscope," he said. "It is difficult to turn from its course, but once started it can hardly be stopped. We do not feel that you yourself have the strength to turn that gyroscope, but there may be others who can. That remains to be seen. We are going to leave now, and you will be allowed to end your own life, or wait here for the Cart. We are giving you the choice. You will be watched, of course, and I trust that you will make no attempt to flee. If so, then it will mean your immediate destruction. Stability must be maintained, at any cost."

  Benton watched them, and then laid the globe on the table. The Members looked at it with interest.

  "A paperweight," Benton said. "Interesting, don't you think?" The Members lost interest. They began to prepare to leave. But the Controller examined the globe, holding it up to the light.

  "A model of a city, eh?" he said. "Such fine detail." Benton watched him.

  "Why, it seems amazing that a person could ever carve so well," the Controller continued. "What city is it? It looks like an ancient one such as Tyre or Babylon, or perhaps one far in the future. You know, it reminds me of an old legend."

  He looked at Benton intently as he went on.

  "The legend says that once there was a very evil city, it was so evil that God made it small and shut it up in a glass, and left a watcher of some sort to see that no one came along and released the city by smashing the glass. It is supposed to have been lying for eternity, waiting to escape.

  "And this is perhaps the model of it." the Controller continued.

  "Come on!" the First Member called at the door. "We must be going; there are lots of things left to do tonight."

  The Controller turned quickly to the Members. "Wait!" he said. "Don't leave."

  He crossed the room to them, still holding the globe in his hand. "This would be a very poor time to leave," he said, and Benton saw that while his face had lost most of its color, the mouth was set in firm lines. The Controller suddenly turned again to Benton.

  "Trip through time; city in a glass globe! Does that mean anything?" The two Council Members looked puzzled and blank. "An ignorant man crosses time and returns with a strange glass," the Controller said. "Odd thing to bring out of time, don't you think?" Suddenly the First Member's face blanched white. "Good God in Heaven!" he whispered. "The accursed city! That globe?" He stared at the round ball in disbelief. The Controller looked at Benton with an amused glance.

  "Odd, how stupid we may be for a time, isn't it?" he said. "But eventually we wake up. Don't touch it!"

  Benton slowly stepped back, his hands shaking.

  "Well?" he demanded. The globe was angry at being in the Controller's hand. It began to buzz, and vibrations crept down the Controller's arm. He felt them, and took a firmer grip on the globe.

  "I think it wants me to break it," he said, "it wants me to smash it on the floor so that it can get out." He watched the tiny spires and building tops in the murky mistiness of the globe, so tiny that he could cover them all with his fingers.

  Benton dived. He came straight and sure, the way he had flown so many times in the air. Now every minute that he had hurtled about the warm blackness of the atmosphere of the City of Lightness came back to help him. The Controller, who had always been too busy with his work, always too piled up ahead to enjoy the airsports that the City was so proud of, went down at once. The globe bounced out of his hands and rolled across the room. Benton untangled himself and leaped up. As he raced after the small shiny sphere, he caught a glimpse of the frightened, bewildered faces of the Members, of the Controller attempting to get to his feet, face contorted with pain and horror.

  The globe was calling to him, whispering to him. Benton stepped swiftly toward it, and felt a rising whisper of victory and then a scream of joy as his foot crushed the glass that imprisoned it.

  The globe broke with a loud popping sound. For a time it lay there, then a mist began to rise from it. Benton returned to the couch and sat down. The mist began to fill the room. It grew and grew, it seemed almost like a living thing, so strangely did it shift and turn.

  Benton began to drift into sleep. The mist crowded about him, curling over his legs, up to his chest, and finally milled
about his face. He sat there, slumped over on the couch, his eyes closed, letting the strange, aged fragrance envelop him.

  Then he heard the voices. Tiny and far away at first, the whisper of the globe multiplied countless times. A concert of whispering voices rose from the broken globe in a swelling crescendo of exultation. Joy of victory! He saw the tiny miniature city within the globe waver and fade, then change in size and shape. He could hear it now as well as see it. The steady throbbing of the machinery like a gigantic drum. The shaking and quivering of squat metal beings.

  These beings were tended. He saw the slaves, sweating, stooped, pale men, twisting in their efforts to keep the roaring furnaces of steel and power happy. It seemed to swell before his eyes until the entire room was full of it, and the sweating workmen brushed against him and around him. He was deafened by the raging power, the grinding wheels and gears and valves. Something was pushing against him, compelling him to move forward, forward to the City, and the mist gleefully echoed the new, victorious sounds of the freed ones.

  When the sun came up he was already awake. The rising bell rang, but Benton had left his sleeping-cube some time before. As he fell in with the marching ranks of his companions, he thought he recognized familiar faces for an instant--men he had known someplace before. But at once the memory passed. As they marched toward the waiting machines, chanting the tuneless sounds their ancestors had chanted for centuries, and the weight of his bonus if the Machines saw fit--

  For had he not been tending his machine faithfully?

  Roog

  "Roog!" the dog said. He rested his paws on the top of the fence and looked around him.

  The Roog came running into the yard.

  It was early morning, and the sun had not really come up yet. The air was cold and gray, and the walls of the house were damp with moisture. The dog opened his jaws a little as he watched, his big black paws clutching the wood of the fence.

  The Roog stood by the open gate, looking into the yard. He was a small Roog, thin and white, on wobbly legs. The Roog blinked at the dog, and the dog showed his teeth.

  "Roog!" he said again. The sound echoed into the silent half darkness. Nothing moved nor stirred. The dog dropped down and walked back across the yard to the porch steps. He sat down on the bottom step and watched the Roog. The Roog glanced at him. Then he stretched his neck up to the window of the house, just above him. He sniffed at the window.

  The dog came flashing across the yard. He hit the fence, and the gate shuddered and groaned. The Roog was walking quickly up the path, hurrying with funny little steps, mincing along. The dog lay down against the slats of the gate, breathing heavily, his red tongue hanging. He watched the Roog disappear.

  The dog lay silently, his eyes bright and black. The day was beginning to come. The sky turned a little whiter, and from all around the sounds of people echoed through the morning air. Lights popped on behind shades. In the chilly dawn a window was opened.

  The dog did not move. He watched the path.

  In the kitchen Mrs. Cardossi poured water into the coffee pot. Steam rose from the water, blinding her. She set the pot down on the edge of the stove and went into the pantry. When she came back Alf was standing at the door of the kitchen. He put his glasses on.

  "You bring the paper?" he said.

  "It's outside."

  Alf Cardossi walked across the kitchen. He threw the bolt on the back door and stepped out onto the porch. He looked into the gray, damp morning. At the fence Boris lay, black and furry, his tongue out.

  "Put the tongue in," Alf said. The dog looked quickly up. His tail beat against the ground. "The tongue," Alf said. "Put the tongue in."

  The dog and the man looked at one another. The dog whined. His eyes were bright and feverish.

  "Roog!" he said softly.

  "What?" Alf looked around. "Someone coming? The paperboy come?"

  The dog stared at him, his mouth open.

  "You certainly upset these days," Alf said. "You better take it easy. We both getting too old for excitement."

  He went inside the house.

  The sun came up. The street became bright and alive with color. The postman went along the sidewalk with his letters and magazines. Some children hurried by, laughing and talking.

  About 11:00, Mrs. Cardossi swept the front porch. She sniffed the air, pausing for a moment.

  "It smells good today," she said. "That means it's going to be warm." In the heat of the noonday sun the black dog lay stretched out full length, under the porch. His chest rose and fell. In the cherry tree the birds were playing, squawking and chattering to each other. Once in a while Boris raised his head and looked at them. Presently he got to his feet and trotted down under the tree.

  He was standing under the tree when he saw the two Roogs sitting on the fence, watching him.

  "He's big," the first Roog said. "Most Guardians aren't as big as this."

  The other Roog nodded, his head wobbling on his neck. Boris watched them without moving, his body stiff and hard. The Roogs were silent, now, looking at the big dog with his shaggy ruff of white around his neck.

  "How is the offering urn?" the first Roog said. "Is it almost full?"

  "Yes." The other nodded. "Almost ready."

  "You, there!" the first Roog said, raising his voice. "Do you hear me? We've decided to accept the offering, this time. So you remember to let us in. No nonsense, now."

  "Don't forget," the other added. "It won't be long."

  Boris said nothing.

  The two Roogs leaped off the fence and went over together just beyond the walk. One of them brought out a map and they studied it.

  "This area really is none too good for a first trial," the first Roog said. "Too many Guardians... Now, the northside area--"

  "They decided," the other Roog said. "There are so many factors--"

  "Of course." They glanced at Boris and moved back farther from the fence. He could not hear the rest of what they were saying.

  Presently the Roogs put their map away and went off down the path.

  Boris walked over to the fence and sniffed at the boards. He smelled the sickly, rotten odor of Roogs and the hair stood up on his back.

  That night when Alf Cardossi came home the dog was standing at the gate, looking up the walk. Alf opened the gate and went into the yard.

  "How are you?" he said, thumping the dog's side. "You stopped worrying? Seems like you been nervous of late. You didn't used to be that way."

  Boris whined, looking intently up into the man's face.

  "You a good dog, Boris," Alf said. "You pretty big, too, for a dog. You don't remember long ago how you used to be only a little bit of a puppy."

  Boris leaned against the man's leg.

  "You a good dog," Alf murmured. "I sure wish I knew what is on your mind."

  He went inside the house. Mrs. Cardossi was setting the table for dinner. Alf went into the living room and took his coat and hat off. He set his lunch pail down on the sideboard and came back into the kitchen.

  "What's the matter?" Mrs. Cardossi said.

  "That dog got to stop making all that noise, barking. The neighbors going to complain to the police again."

  "I hope we don't have to give him to your brother," Mrs. Cardossi said, folding her arms. "But he sure goes crazy, especially on Friday morning, when the garbage men come."

  "Maybe he'll calm down," Alf said. He lit his pipe and smoked solemnly. "He didn't used to be that way. Maybe he'll get better, like he was."

  "We'll see," Mrs. Cardossi said.

  The sun rose up, cold and ominous. Mist hung over all the trees and in the low places.

  It was Friday morning.

  The black dog lay under the porch, listening, his eyes wide and staring. His coat was stiff with hoarfrost and the breath from his nostrils made clouds of steam in the thin air. Suddenly he turned his head and leaped up.

  From far off, a long way away, a faint sound came, a kind of crashing sound.

&n
bsp; "Roog!" Boris cried, looking around. He hurried to the gate and stood up, his paws on top of the fence.

  In the distance the sound came again, louder now, not as far away as before. It was a crashing, clanging sound, as if something were being rolled back, as if a great door were being opened

  "Roog!" Boris cried. He stared up anxiously at the darkened windows above him. Nothing stirred, nothing.

  And along the street the Roogs came. The Roogs and their truck moved along bouncing against the rough stones, crashing and whirring.

  "Roog!" Boris cried, and he leaped, his eyes blazing. Then he became more calm. He settled himself down on the ground and waited, listening.

  Out in front the Roogs stopped their truck. He could hear them opening the doors stepping down onto the sidewalk. Boris ran around in a little circle. He whined and his muzzle turned once again toward the house.

  Inside the warm, dark bedroom, Mr. Cardossi sat up a little in bed and squinted at the clock.

  "That damn dog," he muttered. "That damn dog." He turned his face toward the pillow and closed his eyes.

  The Roogs were coming down the path, now. The first Roog pushed against the gate and the gate opened. The Roogs came into the yard. The dog backed away from them.

  "Roog! Roog!" he cried. The horrid, bitter smell of Roogs came to his nose, and he turned away.

  "The offering urn," the first Roog said. "It is full, I think." He smiled at the rigid, angry dog. "How very good of you," he said

  The Roogs came toward the metal can, and one of them took the lid from it.

  "Roog! Roog!" Boris cried, huddled against the bottom of the porch steps. His body shook with horror. The Roogs were lifting up the big metal can, turning it on its side. The contents poured out onto the ground, and the Roogs scooped the sacks of bulging, splitting paper together, catching at the orange peels and fragments, the bits of toast and egg shells.